Repurposed ink and paint holders, or how to make ugly household items quite fun

These are actually some projects I did last year ("That is sooooo 2008...") but since I never did get around to posting it here, I'm going to claim it's part of my "simplify" campaign of 2009. Self-deception is getting me everywhere - tee hee!

I had been coveting our wall-mounted spice rack for ages and ages (at least six months) because I'd realized it would the perfect thing for keeping all my cheapie acrylic paints where I can see them. And presumably, use them. I have my Golden paints (hardly cheapies) in there as well, for a bit of class, but as you can see, it's mostly the 50c jars from JoAnn's. I love em actually. Being a visual person (and what artist isn't) it definitely helps to have your stuff out where you can remember you have it. It took a bit of convincing the husband that I could put the spice rack to better use than he could, and the purchase of an expensive new spice rack (they don't make this design anymore that I could find, which is sad. Now you have to go much more expensive.) When he finally relented and said I could have it, I whipped it off the wall in the kitchen (there are still bare nail holes) and screwed it into place (it's a bit heavy) before he changed his mind. He marvelled that I had actually hung it myself. I marvelled that I had hung it straight.

Along the same lines I also went to a local thrift store (now sadly going out of business - not sure what it says for the economy when even the grungiest thrift store is closing - does that mean nobody's buying cheap? or that nobody's even spending for junk?) to find the above item. What is it, you say? I can't take credit for this idea, but I had read a few years ago that a great way to store your inkpads (for rubber stamping) is to keep them in an old cassette tape holder. A few of you may remember these ;-) They're generally made from pressboard, you probably threw yours out in a "simplify" campaign of your own at least a decade ago. I did - which is why I had to go to a thrift store to buy another one! Thankfully I found one, classed it up with my favorite Basic Grey Motifica paper and some artful applications of "aging" dark brown chalk ink and paint. Et voila - an inkpad holder!

The paintbrush holder is the bottom of a cannister that held a whisky bottle - sawed in half, covered in paper, rubber stamped on (stamp is fro m Stampers Anonymous Michael de Meng collection), painted on, doodled on. I am quite fond of it!

So, we're reusing, reducing, recycling and simplifying here. Now if only I could think of something to hold all my little tiny "cats eye" shaped inkpads...the quest continues.

Crusade 21 - Irresistable Wax Rubbings

This month's Green Pepper Press crusade was yet another wonderful use for your rubber stamps, stencils, lace, paper doilies, carved wood, and any other textured surface that you may find around your cottage. I say "cottage" because it's a lot like the process of making brass rubbings that you can make of the brass gravestones in ancient churches in England. You rub a crayon over a textured surface, then paint over it with acrylics. Sounds easy, it is easy!

It's also fun and really brought out my creativity - just like all Michelle Ward's projects. It has been about the only fun in my life this week as I've had a bit of a low patch due to several different health issues that have been very painful and also scary. (Different issues, different pains and scary things) So God Bless Michelle Ward for reminding me that when the "ol' black dog" starts creeping a bit too close, the best thing to do is break out your art supplies.

Here are some of my wax resist samples:

The one on the left was supposed to be a rubber stamp casting - didn't come out well of the stamp, but I loved it anyway. The one on the right is sequin waste - came out perfectly!

The one on the left is a doily rubbing (those paper lacey things that they use as decorative mats in restaurants) and the one on the right is a stencil rubbing. So beautiful - I wish you could see it in real life. It is all gold shimmers and bright teal.

Then, the next question, what to do with them that will honor the process and make them useful? One of my favorite things about altered art is its ability to make beautiful things useful in your life. I've been intending to do "something more interesting" with the cups that hold my paintbrushes for ages. Well, finally I had an idea. See below:

Yes, that's a cup! And yes, that's a wax resist - not one of the ones I showed you, but it's a lace doily impression with a Michael DeMeng Stampers Anonymous stamp over it, and then my doodling and more painting on top of that. Around the back of the cup is a wrap of more of the wax resists. I love this piece! The picture below shows the wrap around the back. It's actually the first rubbing picture that I showed you (the one that didn't come out well, but I liked it anyway).

Here's the almost finished product - I also added a bit of recycled sari ribbon around the top for a finishing touch not seen in this picture.

Oh, one other thing.....in my last post I mentioned that I was thinking about starting up a meetup group for altered artists in the Central Florida area. Having gone into it a bit further, apparently it's quite expensive to start a group through meetup.com. So, (as a starving artist, well, not really, but I just don't have $200 to put towards meetup.com's advertising...) I decided to make my Altered ARTists of Central Florida a Yahoo group, with the hopes that we can find other people obsessed with altered art in the area, and hopefully they'd like to make some art with us (or at least discuss the wondrous properties of Golden Gel Mediums...) To advertise, Cindy and I are wearing shirts to the Stampfest convention this weekend. We'd really like to meet any other altered/collage/assemblage etc. artists in the Central Florida area - surely we can't be the only two in Orlando? So if you're reading this, and you're going to the Stampfest Orlando convention, we'll be there...with shirts on. Well, of course we'll have shirts on, but I mean shirts that say "Altered ARTists of Central Florida".....

Alterered ARTists of Central Fla has three current members - me, my friend Cindy (http://cskawins.blogspot.com), and......MICHAEL DE MENG! This was the only other part of my week that was good, really. Read the previous post's (the one about the Seven Bags of Craft Supplies...) comments and you'll see one from him saying he'd like to be an honorary member!

Also, Michelle - would you like to be an honorary member of our group too?? If you're ever in central Florida, we'd LOVE to see you and make some art. (shameless begging going on here...)

Thank you as always Michelle for your inspiration....

In which I learn the Secrets of Rusty Things

Here's photo proof that I've really met Michael de Meng! Well, like you needed that, but hey, I just wanted to show you.....



In our class, Assemblooks, we learned all about Michael's way of altering books. Now I've done some altered book work before the class following the general ideas presented in Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton (which is a good primer on the subject if you want to know more about altered books in general), but nothing like this!

Basically we took the pages right out of our books, so just had the spine, and then worked with foam core board to sculpt "pages" which we then adhesed together to form essentially a shadow box effect. You could build as much or as little "found objects" as you wanted to into the construction. In this form, the altered book is more like a very elaborate box or even possibly a frame. The great thing about altered books, and altered art in general, is that there isn't any one way of doing anything, it's whatever you want it to be.

Michael is an Assemblage artist (which is pronounced to rhyme with "collage" not "fridge") He started the class by talking about his ideas about art, and encouraged us to rummage through a box of "rusty things" that he'd brought with him for our inspiration!

He then gave us a primer on using power tools (scary but intriguing; he was happy to use them for the people that weren't comfortable about this part of the class), alternative adhesives and texturing materials (Dap Tub and Tile Caulk, Liquid Nails, and a few others), and later on, paint. Oh my! Michael is the king of basically what amounts to faux finish paint effects. Now, I don't want to give away any of his trade secrets, so I'll just say he taught us how to create "uszhh" (that olivey color that appears on almost all of his work), and it's near cousins "warm uszhh", "not so uszhh", and various washes that simulate the look of slate, water, verdigris, antiquing new metal, and faux burned paper (according to Michael, faux burned paper takes three times as long as just burning the paper, but is much less likely to go awry, so it has its positives!)

In between giving us information, he walked around and helped people with whatever they personally needed (technique, information, suggestions). I was so impressed with how generous and individualized the attention was. He also has a great sense of humor and is VERY approachable. He sat with the students at lunch and talked about travel, art, and mowing hay (one of the women in class has a cattle farm). At the end of class, he played, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and that was our signal to place our artwork on a table for a little exhibit.

After everyone had their pieces up, we gathered around in a circle and Michael critiqued everyone's work (not scary at all, very supportive and encouraging!) He really spent a good amount of time with each piece and went over them carefully making observations, asking the artists about their ideas on the work, and pointing out features of each piece. It was really great to see everyone's interpretations of the "altered book" theme. Some pieces were actually finished, some were in development, the great part was that everyone's work was totally different. We all started in the same place, but each piece truly took on the personality and outlook of its creator. It was such a difference from taking scrapbooking classes, where everyone comes out with something that looks EXACTLY alike (that's the point). He basically provided technique and advice if asked, but where you wanted to go in your piece was entirely up to you.

I actually found symbolism in my work that I hadn't even realized at the start. He asked what my thoughts were on the piece, and I suddenly realized that there actually WERE thoughts on the piece. I guess I had better show you what mine looked like, right?

Jane's Assemblook (interior)

The picture in the "cage" is of the Priestess of Delphi (by John Collier).


The picture below one I took in Venice, Italy of the colonnade of the Doge's palace near the Bridge of Sighs.


I realized that the symbolism was about caging and subjugating your (mine, many people's) intuition and your authentic self. The Oracle represents the interior world, and the intuitive feminine gifts that are often discounted or disregarded. The Bridge of Sighs was called this because prisoners were led across it from the Doge's palace to jail, and it was often their last sight of freedom. So, in this meaning, we imprison our creative spirit often in a cage of our own minds, and our own fears about breaking free. You'll notice, however that in the photo, there is almost a fiery quality to it, and a look of broken glass (actually, mica) indicating that the fire of the creative spirit in the end will break free of its "prison."

Jane's Assemblook (exterior)

The exterior of the book, by contrast, is very slate-like and (hard to see in this picture) watery looking, and is free of ornamentaion, indicating the cool exterior that we/I present to the world. (As a note, if you believe in this sort of thing, I'm a Capricorn sun sign, with a Scorpio moon - work that one out!)

So, outside is all smooth and stony, inside, there's a creative firestorm when we allow it to happen! This was the first piece that I've made in the direction of symbolic art - something that fascinates me, and is totally the direction I want to go in, of using art as a tool of self-discovery. So, having a class with Michael is obviously transformative on many levels! As a bonus, I used lots of the paint washes and techniques that he taught us in the book's production.

So, to conclude this very long post, I thought I'd show you Random Arts in Saluda, NC. Random Arts sponsored the class. It's probably the only altered art store in the Southeastern US, and is a little nook of creativity, with so much stuff to look at and putter through. Jane Powell, the owner as well as Jen (I didn't get to meet the other Random Arts Lady, Julia) has fostered such a creative community of altered artists in this area (western North Carolina is already very supportive of art and general and artists to begin with). If you are in this area, make sure you go!

www.randomartsnow.com

Michael de Meng's Assemblook

Michael's Assemblook - Front Cover

Michael's Assemblook - Interior Left Side

Michael's Assemblook - Interior Right Side

Before I took the Assemblook class, I was looking all over the place on the internet trying to find a picture of what an Assemblook might look like. A class sample, if you like. I couldn't find one anywhere, so now I've actually seen one for myself - actually Michael de Meng's and the ones created by my fellow artists in our class at Random Arts (see previous post for pre-class jitters). I thought I'd share a few pictures I took of Michael's, so you can see for yourself how beautiful it is! I sincerely hope he doesn't mind my posting pictures of his work here :-) Shameless plug for Michael de Meng - if you are an altered artist, you simply MUST try and find a way to take a class with Michael; he is amazing!

www.michaeldemeng.com

Studying with Michael DeMeng

I'm going to be taking a class with assemblage artist Michael de Meng http://www.michaeldemeng.com this week called "Assemblooks aka Trashy Novels" at Random Arts in Saluda, NC. http://www.randomartsnow.com

My friend Cindy (fellow artist, and given to observations such as, "You know, scrapbooking just isn't subversive enough...")and I call him M de M - like we know the great man, right?

On one hand, I'm very excited about the opportunity to study with one of my favorite "BNA's" (big name artists) but on the other hand, quite intimidated. I've been getting together my art supplies (ordinary - paint, brushes) and out of the ordinary (Qwik Seal Tub and Tile Caulk, Liquid Nails, 5 minute epoxy - not liquid) obtained from Lowes. I have no idea what to do with the latter group, and am concerned that my brushes are not up to snuff in the former. I'm also supposed to gather "altered" materials - problem is, I don't really have that many. Everything I have is more in the scrapbook-esque line, not so much in the Rusty Things category. This for a man who wrote a book called "Secrets of Rusty Things."

So far, my rustiest thing is two quite lovely bolt-y things that have nice circles in the middle of them that look like medieval stained glass window structures. I found them in my driveway and have been rusting them nicely next to my ficus for some months. I brought them in and washed them off the other day, and my husband saw them next to the kitchen sink.

I said, "Look at these nice rusty bolts; do you have anything else like this, cause I really need it for my class."

He said (eyes slightly bulging, forehead shoots skyward) "Those are my missing pieces from my tap and die set! Where did you find them?"

I said, "Um, out in the yard.." (gestures vaguely towards the yard) "I think they're pretty...very medieval...haven't you noticed their design?"

We then stared at one another; incredulous at each other's ideas of what constitutes "art."

He seems to be a bit worried about what other items from his garage I'm going to purloin next.

Hoping to get around to creating a few stencils for Michelle Ward's Crusade this evening; I'm definitely leaving this up until the last minute. I've been rather overly busy this month, it seems.